Essay Sample on Ethical Actions Within Organizations

Introduction

The company code of ethics highlights the expected standards of behavior, laws, and values that the employees or any other stakeholder engagement with the business are required to adhere. The document contains a body of policies that govern the employee conduct which helps to ensure that the daily operations of the business are operated within the framework of ethics and fair business practices. The business has therefore realized the need to have compliance and ethics program to help minimize the risks arising from unethical conduct of employees, point out mistakes and help create a positive image of the company in the eyes of the community where it operates.

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Principle 1 Anti-Corruption and Governance

The employees should never accept a gift or anything related to gifts directly or indirectly from partners or other stakeholders such as the government in order to give the undue advantage. The company has zero tolerance for corruption and all the employees and stakeholders engaged should conduct their daily business with utmost integrity. The business prohibits giving or receiving of any type of offers with the main aim of influencing the company decisions to their personal advantage Marx & Els, 2009). The fees paid to the third parties engaging with the company must be reasonable and obtained through a fair, transparent and competitive process devoid of any form of manipulation and in compliance with the company policies.

Principle 2 Dress code

All employees are required to dress in a decent manner while at the workplace to maintain high dignity and command respect from the customers as well as other business partners. The company has uniform shirts for sales representatives which are expected to be worn by the employees in that department together with badges during the working hours. Those in the office work such as the accountants and managers are expected to wear a clean suit with a tie during Monday to Thursday and on Fridays, they are expected to wear descent casuals without exposing many parts of their bodies.

Principle 3

The employee is expected to treat every individual with fairness and refrain from exercising any form of discrimination based on color, religion, ethnicity, culture, disability, sexual orientation or any other form of diversity. The company is an equal opportunity employer and the qualifications for hiring are purely merit-based. Equal opportunities should be provided to all employees based on merit when it comes to recruiting, hiring, job promotion, salary increment, and retrenchment or work assignments (Marx & Els, 2009).

Principle 4 Health Practices and Safety

The employees are expected to comply with safety standards such as wearing full protective gear in the factory and also abide by relevant safety regulatory framework. Employees are expected to exercise due diligence and avoid the reckless conducts that can jeopardize their safety as well as that of their colleagues at the workplace.

Training

Component, Duration, and Frequency of Training

Ethics training will be conducted on half yearly bases and will include a 2 weeks refresher course covering important components such as ethical values, industry and professional concerns and how to practice the ethical concepts regularly. The company would use an induction seminar as well as a workshop to help the employees interpreted the company values such as integrity, honesty, diligence, transparency. The second component of training would also entail the ethical concerns of the various professions and industry concerns as it pertains to emerging issues. A case in point is the accounting profession and management duties ethical issues or also the seat shops concerns in labor-intensive industries such as those in manufacturing. Another component of training is providing the employees with the behavioral standards and in these sections of simulations would be used to help give a practical outlook of what type of dressing is tolerated in the organization. The fourth component will include the safety standards which include what is expected of the employees in situations such as fire emergencies, reporting standards and procedures as well as how to detect other employees acts of negligence that expose safety dangers at the workplace

The Mode of Delivery and Who Will Train

The company would use different modes of content delivery to suit different styles of learning for the learners. Some of the methods to be used include the lecture methods, PowerPoint presentation/ visual aids, simulation methods, role play, and group reflection. The role play and simulations would help to highlight practical situations and help the learners to practically apply the knowledge learned such as in cases of fatal injuries and inferno in the workplace (Morrison & et al 2012). The lecture methods would be used to highlight the policies and legal framework. While group reflections and role plays would also help the learners to brainstorm on the ideas imparted to them and seek clarification in the grey areas. The visual aids would help the learners to understand the expected workflow, reporting hierarchy and procedures as well as dress codes. The managers and departmental heads would be used to train the new employees.

Monitoring Employee Misconduct

A business ethics policy that takes into account the aspect of employee misconduct remains to be a step toward creating a climate of trust. The truth of the matter is that even in presence of strong policy the aspect of convincing employees to step forward following the occurrence of misconduct is not easy. Hence putting in place programs and actions integrating standards of good conduct into the mission and vision of the business is paramount (Stevens, 2018).

Measures or Procedures Used

The first step entails defining workplace misconduct as it relates to the business into consideration. Secondly is communicating the definition to new and existing employees through written standards of conduct as well as part of the ethics training. It is important to let the employees know that monitoring stands to be a standard business practice. The importance of such as upfront and direct approach is critical in that it makes the monitoring procedures be preventive instead of reactive controls (Stevens, 2018).

Type of Misconduct to Look For and How

Any action that goes against the provision of the standards code of conduct, for instance, any action that leads to a conflict of interest, indecent dressing, unethical business practice, reckless conducts among others ought to be closely monitored. This can be done via execution of computer monitoring and call monitoring as tactics of making sure that employees adhere to the standards procedures of operating (Stevens, 2018).

Who Will Be Monitoring

According to Valkanas & et al (2018), a person put in charge of supervising employees conductions can use technologies of computer monitoring including software programs that enables him /her to have a look to what is on the screen as well as stored in the hard disks and computer terminals. Video surveillance cameras can also be installed in strategic positions. This assist in monitoring the usage of the internet as well as email communications besides preventing theft and fraud.

Reporting Employee Misconduct

Effective Identification of the measures or procedures to use first and foremost it is important to embolden employees to have any misconduct reported. This can be done effectively by setting a good example and keeping strong a commitment towards prevention as well as addressing misconduct. Implementing an open-door policy within the team of management, provide ways and means upon which employees report misconduct anonymously. Finally, it is imperative to build a culture upon which employees consider reporting misconduct as being a normal part of the routine (Valkanas & et al, 2018).

How an Employee Can Report a Co-Worker Violating the Policy of the Company

Dear supervisory XYZ: In the advertising department I work with Smith. Smith is running for a political office. Several times we have observed him at the postscript machine and office printer working on his campaign materials. When put to question Smith said that he will only stop doing so when he raises enough money for his campaign. In a number of instances, Smith is using company's resource for this personal reasons which I consider Unethical- A concerned employee.

Plan of Auditing Ethics Program Following Implementation

Conclusion

In conclusion, as noted by Knechel & Salterio (2016), tools such as reviewed taped, call logs and telephoned conservations, video surveillance tape, computer loss as well as corrections actions are paramount in measuring ethics program effectiveness by identifying trends of the behavior and former incidents of undetected misconducts. The frequency of the review can be done monthly depending with the level of activity by the senior management upon which there must a continuous improvement in taking action after review and opportunity to explain in response to audit checklists, written summaries as well as comments regarding misconducts incidents and trends. Changes should at all times communicated to avoid misunderstandings or taking someone out of context.

Reference

Knechel, W. R., & Salterio, S. E. (2016). Auditing: Assurance and risk. Routledge. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Knechel%2C+W.+R.%2C+%26+Salterio%2C+S.+E.+%282016%29.+Auditing%3A+Assurance+and+risk.+Routledge.&btnG=

Marx, B., & Els, G. (2009). The role of the audit committee in strengthening business ethics and protecting stakeholders' interests. African Journal of Business Ethics, 4(1).http://ajobe.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/59

Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K., & Kemp, J. E. (2012). Designing effective instruction. Wiley https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ixJwDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Morrison,+G.+R.,+Ross,+S.+M.,+Kalman,+H.+K.,+%26+Kemp,+J.+E.+(2012).+Designing+effective+instruction.+Wiley.&ots=i_DuvV6HEJ&sig=AzaHO_11r8ADWVat0H79ag15soo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Valentine, S., & Fleischman, G. (2008;). Ethics programs perceived corporate social responsibility and job satisfaction. Journal of Business Ethics, 77(2), 159-172.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-006-9306-z

Stevens, M. (2018). Monitoring employee activity: when is it appropriate?. Nursing And Residential Care, 20(8), 402-404.https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/nrec.2018.20.8.402

Valkanas, G., Ipeirotis, P., Provost, F., Attenberg, J., Chin, J., Hendahewa, C., ... & Swamy, B. V. (2018). Detecting Employee Misconduct and Malfeasance. http://cgi.di.uoa.gr/~gvalk/pubs/detectica_misconduct.pdf